Lyrics I Love #24: Across the Borderline

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About the Song

Track: Across the Borderline

Length: 4:40

Album: Across the Borderline (1993)

Artist: Willie Nelson

Songwriters: Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, John Hiatt

Favorite part: 

“But hope remains when pride is gone

And it keeps you moving on

Calling you across the borderline”

© Universal Music Publishing Group

Here’s Why I Love It

This is the first time in Lyrics I Love that I’ve featured a cover. I know, it’s sort of strange for a column like this one. But the Willie Nelson version is just too good. He provides something the others don’t. Maybe it’s the clarity combined with his tone that serves as the perfect vessel for the song’s somewhat vague metaphor—across the borderline. I take it to mean a fabled place in our mind that we are trying to reach. A place that seems better than it is. One that the protagonist of this song doesn’t ever reach, or more importantly, realizes doesn’t even really exist.

This song imparts a life lesson. One that’s usually reserved for people who have travelled, “Up and down the Rio Grande / A thousand footprints in the sand” only to “Reveal a secret that no one can define.” It’s the consummate exemplification of what I like to call a journey song—a tune about someone beaten by life; downtrodden, maybe; self-inflicted, more likely. They’re not usually songs about victims, though. They’re songs about strength and endurance. A style of song that mixes pain and grit as its main ingredients. I personally can’t get enough of them. Call me, a sap, maybe a romantic. But done well, like this one, they don’t feel romanticized to me. They feel real.

The original recording was done by one of its writers Ry Cooder. Since, it’s been covered by many singer/songwriters over the years. Even Dylan and Springsteen have done versions. As I mentioned, I prefer the song linked below. Good ol’ Willie. Sure, you’ll have to endure a little twang, and that might not be your thing, but the meaning lands the best for me. Give it a shot. It might be the best five minutes you spend today.

*** Read the lyrics and Listen to the song *** 


*This article is part of the ongoing Lyrics I Love series: short interpretations of the meaning and story behind one song with lyrics that move me.